Jodi McFarland: Bricks hold memories of Saginaw's North Middle School

You spend so much time in your school. You want it to be there forever. - Jeffrey Cottrell, Castle Museum multimedia specialist

When a piece of your past comes tumbling down, it can hit you like a brick.

The Castle Museum of Saginaw County History invited citizens to come by last week for a free token of the demolition-bound North Middle School, 1101 N. Bond. More than 20 people queued up in the first hour. The museum will keep handing out bricks as long as they are available and citizens are interested — more than 100 bricks had found new homes in the first four days of the giveaway last week.

Melissa Polzin of Saginaw Township made a stop for
her husband, Tom, and his two sisters, who live in Chicago. Tom Polzin
attended North from 1985 through 1987.

“He said he was going to save it as a memento,” his wife said.

These bricks aren’t fancy. They’re a rusty ochre, mortar clinging and crumbling from their sides, detritus of the onetime North Intermediate School built in 1922 and closed by the Saginaw School District in 2008. Covenant HealthCare purchased the derelict building in 2013, with plans this week to raze it. Interior demolition prep continues with the removal of light fixtures. The exterior bricks will come tumbling down soon.

Bricks have their own power, a tangible piece of so many Saginaw students’ past.

“Met the best friends of my my life,” wrote another, adding she still holds a North teacher as her favorite ever. The school bore witness to her first crush.

“Remember when I went there, my dad would not let me wear makeup, so I had to sneak wearing it. Went to the bathroom to take it off,” penned a visitor.

Visitor Carolyn Fenner of Saginaw knows all about brick keepsakes.

“I collect them from old buildings,” she said. “I’ve got maybe eight or 10 in front of my TV. My garage is loaded. I just love them. So many years that the school has stood. To see it come down is sad, but it’s time to do it.”

Since 2004, the Saginaw School District has closed 13 school buildings, with 17 open for the 2013-14 school year. The board closed four buildings in the 2012-13 school year. The district plans to close two more schools and reopen a third at the end of this academic year as it continues to adjust to shrinking enrollment.

Fenner, 69, moved to Saginaw when she was 18 to work at General Motors Plant 3. She and her sister wrap the bricks in foil to contain dust, then cover them in plastic canvas and needlepoint over them to denote their origins.

Jeffrey Cottrell, multimedia specialist and curator of the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame, said he understands the nostalgia. As part of the Hall of Fame exhibit still in the works, he and others reclaimed North bleachers to build the stages for exhibits such as a mannequin who wears LaMarr Woodley’s Pittsburgh Steelers uniform.

“You spend so much time in your school,” Cottrell reflected. “You want it to be there forever.”

Thanks to the brick giveaway, a little bit of North could turn up anywhere.